As well as collecting drivers from the internet, it's important to keep every original installation CD (or ISO images of them) for all your software and hardware. Whether drivers for a wireless adapter, an MP3 player or a webcam, the day will likely come when you'll need to restore a corrupted driver or re¬install software relating to the product. Of course, drivers may be available on the web, but what if you need to re-install your wireless networking card, or if the driver you need never made it to the master disc of drivers you created?

As always, it's better to be safe than sorry, so keep all your discs somewhere safe. We also suggest you get a good-quality, fine-tip CD marker pen and write the product key for every disc you have on the disc itself. This will solve all manner of headaches should a CD be separated from its original case. You may even want to write these keys on stickers to attach to the back of your Pc.

Don't forget to also back up copies of the installation files of any programs you've bought and downloaded. It's a good idea to keep all these on their own separate discs and, again, make sure you have written the product keys on them.
In particular, if your PC didn't come with a Windows XP master disc, it should have a program on it that can create a set of system restore discs. If so, make sure you do this. As a final precaution, if you've lost your original Windows product key, download and run Keyfinder from.This will scan your system and notify you of all your Microsoft Office and Windows product keys, plus other supported programs. Make a note of these. You may wish to use stickers affixed to the back of your PC.